


Final Space: A sense of closure

by Virdoote



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Closure, Grief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 16:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14596938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virdoote/pseuds/Virdoote
Summary: In the future Gary and Littlecato visit the grave of Avocato and Reminisce.





	Final Space: A sense of closure

(Special thanks to Oscar power for his help on this one: https://twitter.com/oscarpower)

(Virdoote)

_"My boy...where's my boy?"_

__

“Avocato, son of Daracato and lonacato, you're time has come.”

__

Twisting his head from side to side Avocato muffled out an upset cry, looking up at the shrouded figured before him, floating halfway off the dimly lit pool of water that seemed to stretch for eons for every direction. The cat man was knee deep in it, shoving some of the fresh liquid into his face to wake up from this nightmare. "i'm not dead, I can't be dead..."

__

_The shrouded figure waited out the pleas and bargains from the creature before in respectful silence, and when Avocato bowed his head in confirmation, in acceptance of his fate. He reached out a bony hand, and took him away into eternity._

\----  
(Oscar)

The seasons were unfamiliar to Gary. At least on this planet anyway. It felt like an autumn back on Earth. Ventrexian weather was one of the many things he had never asked Avocato about. Or his son, for that matter. Still, he silently shivered in his overcoat and kept a stoic watch. He was greying at the temples, perhaps a little less trim around the waist then he'd have liked (a fact that Quinn constantly found cause to joke about) but he was still recognisably the Gary Goodspeed who had met that Ventrexian all those years ago.

The other, figure however? The one he was keeping a silent watch over now? He was unrecognisable. Not in a bad way. And not necessarily a physical way either, that teal strip of fur on the top of his head still standing out against the orange. But he had changed. Perhaps it was the sadness that lurked behind his eyes occasionally. Perhaps it was the way he tempered his laughter sometimes, as though he had been forced to give up a child-like joy much too young. But he had changed, so much from that rebellious, angry, inventive teenager he had first met all those years ago.

"There isn't a body in there." the feline figure mumbled, on his knees, barely audibly. "I know. We tried to find him, but-" Gary sighed. There was a marker though. A simple marble stone. 'Here lies Avocato, son of Daracato and Ionacato, father to...'  
Even reading the words made Gary's head pound and his eyes sting. How could it be like this? Twenty years on, and he was still cut up about this? How could be like this? Shouldn't he get over this? Why did he leave him like this? The last living member of Cato clan meanwhile, just stared into the unfeeling whiteness of the tombstone, as if maybe he stared hard enough, he could go back and maybe see him one last time.

(Virdoote) 

“I thought this would, make it better” The cat finally spoke, running an anxious finger through the fur on his head “they say funerals, t-tombs, all that bring closure but...I don’t know. I still feel the same way.” Littlecato bowed his head and began to mumble something inaudible, or perhaps in a language Gary didn’t know, but he could tell from the hushed tone and furrowed brow that it was deeply meaningful. Littlecato was praying. Ventrexians worshipped not a god or gods, as Gary had found out, more of an abstract representation of their ancestors. Passed souls who they believed stayed with them throughout every trial and tribulation, it was the same reason Avocato had carried that glass jar of ashes with him wherever he went, a remembrance of the dead and a desperate hope for something after. Littlecato for his part had struggled with that belief after everything that had happened but now he put aside all of that hurt and torment and anger, and whispered a short plea loud enough for Gary to hear. “Keep him out of trouble, mom.” He opened his tear stroked eyes, gave them a single wipe and then turned back towards Gary. “you know what, I do feel a little bit better after all...this is nice.”

(Oscar)

"It is." Gary said hoarsely. Try to keep it composed man. You got your arm ripped off for crying out loud, and this is the thing that somehow sets you off? The feline figure must have noticed something was wrong with the older man though. He gave him a quizzical look, which Gary tried to counter with the same stoic, masculine look he had once seen on an Infinity Guards recruitment poster half a lifetime ago.

"You know, you don't have to pretend Gary." Littlecato sighed. There was a tense silence. The wind whipped around semi-audibly, rustling the bare branches of the trees that surrounded the small grave-site. 

"I-er...we should get going..." the human mumbled, shifting his gaze to the ground, as though almost ashamed to look Littlecato in the eye. 

Ashamed, why would that be Gary? Guilty that you're alive and he isn't? Guilty that you have to look his son in the face everyday and tell him things will be okay when they aren't? Guilty that you didn't sacrifice yourself instead of him so you didn't have to deprive a parent of their child. Oh, but you would know all about that, wouldn't you?

**SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP.**

Gary stuck his fingers to his temples, rubbing them as his head throbbed. He turned away and looked off into the far distance, the eddying winds picking up clouds of red dust from the ground and flinging them about. "Gary. I feel the same way you know. Remember when I told you all those years ago how I didn't know we were both in the same club?" the feline said quietly, harking back to the moment he discovered that they had both lost their fathers. "Yeah?" the older man exhaled, still not turning around. "We both lost him together as well." Gary turned back and chanced him a few seconds of eye contact. "I thought it would get easier. Or at the very least I'd be able to get all the bad stuff out of the way quickly , like ripping off a band-aid...but it just keeps going. This dull...pain." He paused. "I'm sorry." 

\---  
(Virdoote) 

_"Littlecato! Wait!"_

__

The cat didn’t listen, didn’t want to listen, running on all fours all the way towards the vent on the other side of the room. Away from Gary, away from Quinn, away from that hole....

__

The vent grid clanged shut behind him and Littlecato could still hear the echoing voice of the human calling out to him in a strained, shaky voice, clearly distraught. He didn’t turn around though, instead he kept crawling and crawling until finally he was in an unknown, silent and dark part of the vent system far away from anybody else, pulling his legs up to his face and curling into a fuzzy ball of grieving, anguished cat.

__

He sniffled and felt loose tears fall through the sides of his covered face, his dad was gone. No matter how many times or ways he replayed the events of today in his head Littlecato couldn’t deny that, the shock melting away and the emptiness beginning to fill with cold, hard grief. “d-dad....” He mumbled, biting his lips to muffle the shaky subs escaping from his distraught form “I c-cant, cant lose you too...”

__

But his father didn't answer, and soon Littlecato relaxed his knees, wiped the tears from his face and continued on through the vents. Now his thoughts turned to the human who’d tried to grab him as he scurried away, Gary...that was what his father had called him, try as Littlecato did he couldn’t block out the pain audible in the man’s voice, angry and bitter but concerned as well. 

__

For a brief moment Littlecato stopped and considered turning around, ears flicking in agitation, not yet....not yet.

__

_He needed to be alone._

\--- 

“...don’t be sorry” Littlecato finally answered after a moment of silence “you have nothing to be sorry about.” He got to his feet and moved towards Gary, standing a head taller than the greying human, and pulled him into a tender, soft hug. “I don’t know what I would of done without you Gary, you weren’t dad but...you were damn close.”

He pulled back, breath coming out in shaky rasps, looking back at the grave one last time. “I know why he liked you, you’re a good guy Gary, and you’re not responsible for what happened.”

Littlecato could feel the human’s chest tense and then flatten, burying his head in the cat’s cotton clad shoulder for a moment before returning, eyes heavy with tears. “Feeling a bit better?”

Gary knodded

No other words passed between the two men and, as Littlecato would recall years later, they never talked of this talk of this moment ever again. Instead they simply walked out of the cool Ventrexian cemetery past the many graves that each could of represented a mother, a brother, a father. Past the steel gates and past the large trees stretching as far as the eye could see, paw on shoulder, until finally they got to the door of a small but typical Ventrexian hut isolated on the outskirts of the village. 

This was nice, Littlecato had to admit and he felt an inkling that Gary felt the same way, real nice.

“Alright, guess i’ll see you around. Do you guys celebrate Christma-” Before Gary could finish his sentence the cat drove forward and pulled him into a warm, firm hug. Eyes wide the captain only managed to wrap his arms around and return the gesture, their embrace lasting one minute, then two, until finally Littlecato broke it with a quick sigh and a grin. 

“Thanks man, for everything.”

“...yeah, you too.”

“So, Christmas? Sounds fun. Guess i’ll see you then, captain.” 

And just like that he was gone, opening his door and pulling himself inside with one swift movement. Leaving Gary alone with his thoughts, and a certain sense of accomplishment, and pride.

 

“Guess this is that closure thing they always told me about.”

And with a chuckle he was gone too, back to the galaxy one, long ago re-purposed into a home ship and anchored on one of the major Ventrexians moons, and back to Quinn and H.U.E.


End file.
